Of Dreams
by Candelabra
Summary: Hina dies, and Rui dreams ... [oneshot][rated for implied sort of suicide]


**Of Dreams**

_She ran past frozen, ghostly houses, through empty streets covered in slipping ice._

_Everything was terribly familiar. She remembered this, this horrible night-time run._

"_Please, come quick, Hina's giving birth! There's no time ..."_

"_I'll get him back, Hina, I promise. I swear it."_

_Only, that time, nothing had been silent. The lights had come on, koorime stood on their doorsteps to ask what was going on._

_Her lucid mind slipped away at about the same time the houses did. It was only then that her dreaming self absently found itself walking across a plain of ice under a dark, dark sky._

_Everything was blackness. Everything was empty._

_And then, in the distance, she saw it — a light. A little flickering of something ..._

_A flicker of fire. And outlined against it, her back to Rui, stood a woman._

_Rui recognized her and called out her name in the same instant._

"_Hina!"_

_Her best friend did not turn, and even Rui's dreaming self felt her heart break. There had been a time, once, when Hina and Rui were the closest of friends. When Hina would have turned to her voice no matter what. When they would have done anything for each other._

_That time was long past._

_She was suddenly there, right behind Hina, and her dreaming mind did not waste the time to question it. She grabbed Hina's shoulder and pulled her back, away from the flames. But Hina tugged her shoulder from Rui's grasp, and pointed, a terribly intense expression upon her face._

"_Look," she whispered, and Rui looked._

_The fire leapt and danced, devouring the wood with a ferocious fury she'd never seen before. Tiny ashes rose on the tongues of smoke and flame, glowing bits that disappeared into the dark of the night. The wood crackled and snapped with the strain of the heat._

_She shuddered._

"_Step away," she said. "Come away now."_

_But Hina shook her head._

"_No," she whispered. "You have looked but you haven't seen."_

_Rui glanced back at the flames. "Seen what, Hina?"_

_She realized with horror that Hina's eyes were glowing with the firelight, a terrible red-orange._

"_It's beautiful," she sighed, shutting those horribly heated eyes._

"_It isn't," said Rui, "It's disgusting."_

_The eyes snapped open again, and Rui saw that Hina was glaring at her with fiery vehemence._

_And suddenly Rui realized that the fire was not a fire at all, but a child. A baby, glowing with fire and light._

"_No, no," whispered Rui. "I didn't mean it. It's beautiful, he's beautiful."_

_Hina gathered the babe into her arms, cooing to it._

"_My darling," she murmured. "My child. My Hiei."_

_Rui gasped. I never knew she named him ... she thought._

"_If I name him," said Hina miserably, "Maybe he'll stay here. Maybe they won't be able to take him away."_

_But Rui knew that hadn't worked._

_And now she wasn't sure if this was a dream or a memory, because suddenly they were back in the house, in the birthing room, and Hina was screaming._

_Rui fought, fought them as she remembered fighting, regardless of what they may think ... all she could hear was her friend's screaming, begging, pleading. All she could see was that tiny, defenseless child being pulled away ..._

_There was a wail and a crack and she winced at the sound of the infant's arm being broken._

"_Stop!" she screamed. "Please, stop!"_

_But it was too late and now he was falling away, down and down and down ..._

_She was back in the cold and the darkness, standing on the ice with Hina's shoulder stiffening under her hand._

_The fire was gone._

_And Hina was weeping._

_Rui wanted to comfort her. She tried to pull her into a hug, but Hina ..._

_Hina was gone, off in the distance, and Rui could just barely see her in the darkness._

"_Hina!" she called. "Hina, come back!"_

_The woman did not answer. She was fading, fading away as she walked._

"_Where are you going?"_

_Hina stopped and turned._

"_To find the light." she said._

_And then she was gone and the world was too dark and lonesome to remain in._

* * *

**A/N:** Yet more symbollism. English IB has destroyed my mind. :) In case you didn't get it from the title or summary, this is supposed to be a dream of Rui's ... it's actually an excerpt from my Yukina and Hiei past fic (which hasn't yet been posted), and it's supposed to be on the day/night that Hina commits suicide.

There. I've just spoiled my story. Not that everyone didn't know that was going to happen anyway ...


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